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“The Scott family is proud to announce that the name (chosen by you) for their newly adopted pup is Reagan! Thanks to everyone who participated in the fun contest,” read Scott’s announcement on his Facebook page.

Commenters were ecstatic, congratulating Scott for getting a rescue dog instead of a purebred like Bo, the Portuguese water dog President Barack Obama adopted in 2009. And friends saluted the dog’s name, an homage to former President Ronald Reagan.

“What a great looking dog! Glad you rescued him. Reagan will like the Governor’s Mansion!” wrote Christine Haut of Fort Myers.

“Welcome Reagan! What a great family,” wrote Debbie Wiest, Ann Scott’s friend of 40 years.

But where is Reagan today?

The last time Reagan made the newspapers was the day before Rick Scott was sworn in as governor in January 2011. John Kennedy, then a reporter for the News Service of Florida, reported seeing the governor-elect walking Reagan in Tallahassee.

Asked last week what had happened to the dog, Scott’s current and former communications directors refused to answer.

Brian Burgess, communications director during the campaign and for more than a year after Scott took office, now holds a similar position for the state Republican Party. When a Times reporter asked him where the dog is, Burgess said he thought it “weird” that two Times reporters would contact him six minutes apart with questions dating to the 2010 campaign.

But he wouldn’t say where the dog was and accused reporters of “surfing some old Facebook or website pages.” At one point, an exasperated reporter asked Burgess if he had killed the dog; Burgess denied ever killing a dog but still wouldn’t say where Reagan was.

The governor’s staff obviously is aware of publicity that dogged Republican Mitt Romney last year over reports that he once tied his dog, Seamus, to the top of a car while on a family vacation.